‘Jimmy Dunne Says’

Christmas Cards

I finally got around to going through our basket of Christmas cards tonight.

It always has to be just the right moment.

——-

I was reminded of an old frat brother, Frank Ramsey. From Madisonville—a town smack in the ribs of Kentucky.

Frank’s dad was an absolute legend Kentucky basketball player who went on to win seven championship rings with the Celtics. In the heartland of Kentucky, Frank’s dad was a christened saint.

Winding down my senior year in college, he was our guest speaker at some dinner event at the fraternity house for all of us knuckleheads.

To start off his toast, in an incredibly thick, relaxed, confident, genuine Madisonville, Kentucky accent, he said, “Boys, listen good. You are who your friends are.”

I just wish I could describe the way and the pace that he said that sentence.

With his heartfelt, make-you-bleed Hopkins County accent, it took longer for him to say the word “friends” than it did for me to slug down my third Rebel Yell and Coke.

He went on to say the friends you choose in your life become—in many ways—a mirror of who you are.

Because you borrow a little bit from all of them, and because they borrow a little bit from you.

I think he was right.

It’s easy to look back at those childhood pals, or early girlfriends who meant the world, or those friends along the way that may not be close now—but they were shooting stars.

They were there with us—for a precious moment along the way.

On the flip side, I’m sure there are some friends along the journey who didn’t show who you wanted to be—but showed you who you didn’t want to be.

They all mattered.

They all added up. They’re all a little bit of the soup of you.

Some just a smidgen of seasoning, but they’re all in the soup.

Shaping your beliefs. Your passions. Your dreams. Your style …

They challenge you. They hurt you. They inspire you. They root for you. They warn you. They test you.

Friends.

And if you’re really, really lucky, there are a few that even love you.

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It’s funny how all the messages on those Christmas cards keep trying to come up with some new, clever, hipper, more fun way of saying “Happy Holidays.”

The truth is, I kind of wish the cards didn’t have any words on ’em at all.

Just the pictures. Just that one-liner on the card where your friend handwrites something like, “Thinking of you.”

They’re saying that no matter how far away they are in this world—we matter to them.

Enough that they took one of their cards, not a big pile of cards, and picked us.

Wrote our name out on the envelope. Licked a stamp. And stuck it in their town’s mailbox.

Just so we could have a moment, a little moment, remembering those days. Those times with them.

When we open up their card—when we look deep in their eyes on that card, they know …

We’ll remember.

We’ll remember when we were on the same beautiful road. That same road, taking it all in—but looking ahead.

Goodbye, my Christmas cards.

Goodbye, till we meet again.

Jimmy Dunne is a modern-day Renaissance Man; a hit songwriter (28 million hit records), screenwriter/producer of hit television series, award-winning author, an entrepreneur—and a Palisadian “Citizen of the Year.” You can reach him at j@jimmydunne.com or jimmydunne.substack.com.